Unstaged with David Lynch

I am completely aware that Daily Duranie doesn’t do “The News” in quite the way that other blogs cover DD news. We tend to be more “touchy feely”….in a very good way, and we also try very hard to cover things from the fan perspective. Now, whether or not it’s the perspective that all or the majority of our readers have I cannot say, it’s up to the reader to decide for his or her self.

In the case of the upcoming show at The Mayan in Los Angeles, however – I feel as though we’ve got to report and comment! I recently found a PR blurb on newswire that I’d like to share. I don’t have the original link to the article, but I’m copying/pasting the article in full here for your reading pleasure:

First Installment of Unstaged 2011 Features Duran Duran Performance Coinciding with the Release of the Band’s 13th Studio Album and their First Official Tour Since 2008

March 23rd Live-Stream Performance Will Be Available as a Live VEVO event on YouTubeNEW YORK, March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Grammy® award-winning rock icons Duran Duran will kick-off the second year of “Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express” on March 23rd at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. The event (featuring all four original members: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor) comes one day after their critically acclaimed 13th studio album, entitled ALL YOU NEED IS NOW (S-Curve Records), hits stores. Duran Duran’s performance will mark the first time an artist within the “Unstaged” music series plays from Los Angeles. Upon release, tickets for Duran Duran’s performance at the Mayan Theatre sold out in under five minutes.

The 2011 “Unstaged” kick-off performance will be live-streamed at 10:00PM ET / 7:00PM PT atwww.YouTube.com/DuranDuranVEVO. American Express, in partnership with VEVO, the leading online premium music video and entertainment service, and YouTube will provide Duran Duran fans worldwide with access to their “Unstaged” performance, which coincides with the start of the band’s first official tour since 2008. Award-winning filmmaker David Lynch (The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive), known for his unique cinematic style that masterfully blends imagery and sound design, has been enlisted to capture the performance, providing fans with a visually stunning home viewing experience.

“I am very excited about this opportunity to experiment with the band, Duran Duran, at the Mayan Theater on March 23rd,” said filmmaker David Lynch. “The idea is to try and create on the fly, layers of images permeating Duran Duran on the stage. A world of experimentation and hopefully some happy accidents.”

Speaking from a rehearsal studio in London where they are preparing for the ‘Unstaged’ show, lead singer Simon Le Bon said: “We are all beyond delighted that David Lynch has agreed to direct this show for us. It’s a dream come true quite frankly. We are all such fans of his work and think he has a creative vision like no other. In talking to him about what he is planning, we all believe this live-streamed performance is going to look nothing like anyone has ever seen before. We can’t wait.”

Duran Duran’s “Unstaged” performance represents the fourth installment within American Express’ innovative music platform “Unstaged,” which launched in the summer of last year and has featured music sensations Arcade Fire, John Legend & The Roots, and Sugarland. Collectively, these artists from the 2010 “Unstaged” music series recently combined for eight Grammy® nominations and four Grammy® wins at this year’s 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Additionally, two of the three artists’ albums debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart following their “Unstaged” performances. American Express, in conjunction with VEVO and YouTube, tracked more than 30 million total streams for all three artists’ performances combined.

“There is no doubt that our ‘Unstaged’ platform is quickly emerging as one of the music industry’s most innovative distribution and marketing models for musicians to share their music with their fans around the world,” said Jessica Igoe, vice president global sponsorship marketing, American Express. “We are thrilled to welcome Duran Duran to the Unstaged family and look forward to David’s artistic vision in bringing their iconic sound to their fans in an entirely new way.”

Bringing the in-concert and at-home viewing experiences to entirely new heights, “Unstaged: An Original Series from American Express” showcases some of the music industry’s most breakthrough artists playing at landmark venues across the country, while tapping some of today’s most influential filmmakers to direct the live-streams and using digital and social media to connect the online audience to the live shows in unexpected ways. Additional artists are set to be unveiled in the coming months.

“YouTube is honored to host this iconic event,” said Ali Rivera, Music Partnerships at YouTube. “The classic British band, Duran Duran, captured on camera by Academy Award® winning director, David Lynch, and shared with viewers worldwide; fans are in for a real treat.”

“We’re thrilled to elevate the American Express ‘Unstaged’ program to an even higher level in 2011… pushing the boundaries by creating innovative and personal concert experiences on multiple ‘stages,'” said David Kohl, EVP, Sales and Customer Operations, VEVO. “VEVO’s primary focus is to offer fans even more live events and interactive viewing experiences for American Express.”

American Express® Cardmembers and music enthusiasts can digitally connect to these live music experiences in ways that further blur the line between an at-home and in-concert experience:

Choose Your Cam: The audience can control their viewing experience throughout the show by switching between the director’s main stream and alternate “Lynchian” artistic lenses on the night.“The Now Pulse” Crowd Visualizer: Further uniting the audiences at the show and at home, this new interactive project will create a real-time visualization of crowd excitement based on social chatter online. When the social buzz reaches a climax, a special Duran Duran memento will be unlocked for fans everywhere.“All Of Us Now” Photo Project: Audiences worldwide will collaborate with David Lynch in an on-stage and online art installation, by submitting photos. In true Lynch style, the photos will be showcased on surreal displays throughout the night. Visitwww.YouTube.com/DuranDuranVEVO to find out more and submit videos.On-line Pre Show: Building anticipation of the night, viewers who tune in early to the live-stream will catch an exclusive segment directed by David Lynch.Tweet The Band: Fans can Tweet questions to #amexduranduran for a chance to have them answered by the band in a series of Pre-Show vignettes.

Leading up to the March 23rd performance, fans will be able to receive insider updates by connecting with American Express atwww.twitter.com/AmericanExpress or www.Facebook.com/AmericanExpress. Fans can visit YouTube for a special “Unstaged” trailer video, including highlights from previous performances. Additionally, a special screening party will be held in New York City, featuring the Duran Duran live-stream performance, including industry insiders, select media and fan club members.

Produced by Mark Ronson, ALL YOU NEED IS NOW is a return-to-roots homage to their most celebrated musical panache, and features guest vocals from longtime collaborator Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters and R&B/neo-soul superstar Kelis. Owen Pallett of Arcade Fire contributes the album’s string arrangements.

VEVO is the web’s leading online premium music video and entertainment service with over two billion worldwide streams and nearly 60 million unique visitors in the U.S. and Canada each month. VEVO’s programming is made available across the VEVO platform, which includes VEVO.com (the service’s marquee destination site), VEVO Mobile (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android), VEVO connected devices (Google TV, Boxee) and a VEVO-branded embedded player. The service also serves as a syndication platform for additional internet destination sites, including AOL, BET, CBS Interactive Music Group (including Last.FM), Univision and, through a special partnership, YouTube, expanding the reach of the VEVO platform across the worldwide web. VEVO was created in partnership by Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. It is operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco. Explore VEVO at http://vevo.com. Journalists/Bloggers can stay updated on VEVO news at http://twitter.com/VEVO_Media

About YouTube

YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. Our mission is for YOU to discover and shape the world through video. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. YouTube, LLC is based in San Bruno, CA and is a subsidiary of Google Inc.

The show sounds like its going to be fantastic! This is obviously a huge opportunity for the band, both in that they are going to be working with David Lynch and that the show is getting quite a bit of press and buzz – along with being shown on youtube for an entire month! Outstanding!

I will be at this show, and I’m very excited to see the band again as well. I think that the experience at home might even better than at the show, but we will see. It’s certainly going to be a very interactive experience for fans that night – and it’s the type of groundbreaking experience that I think Duran Duran is known for. Once again I must acknowledge that my luck is rarely this good – and I’m really looking forward to going to the show. It’s been a very long wait in between Duran Duran shows, and I am still having trouble believing that I’m actually going to be seeing them again just next week! (yes, it’s the fangirl in me – I try to keep her caged, but sometimes, she does escape.)

If you’ve read the article carefully, you’ll see that there is even to be a special screening party in New York City for the show that night. I haven’t read or heard anything about this within the community as of yet – but I’m hopeful that fans will have the chance to attend. I know that if I weren’t going to the show myself, I think it would be a lot of fun to be at a screening party somewhere in the country. What’s better than seeing Duran Duran? Seeing Duran Duran with a bunch of friends! The only thing I can think of that would make the experience better would be to do some sort of an interactive show of this scale on the big screen at movie theaters across the country. So rather than having one screening party, doing many across the country as was done for Live from London, yet it would be live, and interactive.

I think the fans have a good year ahead with many surprises – looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

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8 thoughts on “Unstaged with David Lynch”

I am having SUCH the dilemma about this show. A friend of mine has an extra ticket that she will GIVE ME, but I'd have to pay for the airfare and I'm having the worst internal conflict about whether or not I can afford it. it's LYNCH! It's DURAN! Together! When will this EVER happen again? If I hadn't already booked a trip to NY for the week after, I wouldn't think twice.

Where are you coming from? I live in Orange County – so for me it's an easy trip. 😀

That said, I have to almost wonder if seeing the show from home on youtube wouldn't be a better experience! I have a feeling that since I'm going to be at the show, I'll miss half of what's really going on behind the scenes and all that, and yet at home – you'll be able to experience the show plus all of the interactive things. I guess there's no real way to tell for sure until it's all over – but I think no matter what you decide, the end result is going to be great!

I'm in Chicago. I actually decided I was going to do it, but by then the airfares were decidedly out of my price range unless I wanted to do a bunch of connecting flights and spend a whole day flying. So I won't be going.

My only concern about watching it online is wondering if my internet connection will be able to keep up with it, or just make it more annoying!

I had to remove my post above because I forgot to sign it…*sigh* I was saying that I hope your internet connection works for you! I know what you mean about airfare, it's going crazy right now. It's going to make traveling to shows later in the year all that much tougher for me unless they settle down a bit.

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